There are not only the general divisions to which we have referred, common to all systems; but there are certain things which every system must have how imperfectly soever, and how variously soever these things may exist in their details.

The first of these necessary and essential parts of all systems is a provision for the Promulgation of the Law, and of all additions to it or alterations in it which may from time to time be made by the supreme power, the legislature of the state. The means appointed for this purpose may be exceedingly various; they may be in some systems very complete and effectual; in others they may be as scanty and imperfect as possible; yet in all there must be some such means provided; because there can no system exist in which men shall be allowed to excuse their delinquencies, and avoid the performance of their duties, by alleging their ignorance of the law.

The most effectual of all provisions with this view is the Digest of the law into a Code, or written body, correctly arranged, clearly expressed, and thus accessible to all who are called upon to comply with its enactments. Even as regards civil rights, and the remedies for their violation, the lawgiver is bound to let his provisions be clearly known. But upon criminal matters nothing can be more monstrous than to punish men for the breach of laws which they have previously had no means of knowing or clearly comprehending. It is true that there are various degrees of clearness and perspicuity, and that it may not be possible to make any system so plain that all whom its sanctions assume to bind shall certainly apprehend them, and safely regulate their conduct accordingly. But the more nearly any code approaches to this point, the better does the lawgiver discharge his duty, and the less ground of complaintdoes he leave to his subjects. Great departures too, from this course, or falling very far short of this point, may always be avoided. Thus every state may have some digest of its laws, and a periodical revision or extension of it to register the changes that have been made since its promulgation. Every state may avoid the prodigious absurdity and injustice of some half-civilised countries, in which the laws are committed to the care of one body of men, ex

clusive depositories of their purport. Every state may avoid the having its laws in such a confused state, so little arranged in order, so encumbered with various enactments on the same matters, so inartificially framed, and so carelessly extended or altered, or with so little reference to previous provisions, that the law may be said really to be committed to the exclusive care of a single body in the community, the lawyers, and that no one can, without their help, form an accurate notion either of his rights or his duties. Every state may avoid such cruel mockery as that of a tyrant posting up his laws so high that no one could read them, a mockery somewhat imitated, though in a different way, by other rulers. Every state may avoid such absurdity as the English Parliament committed when it created some dozen or more of capital felonies, and only gave five days' notice to the whole empire before the act came into operation.1

2. All systems of Jurisprudence must have Courts of Justice, civil and criminal; though these may be constituted and may proceed to try causes or offenders in a great variety of ways, and may approach near to or recede far from a soundly framed judicature.

The principles which ought to govern the formation of a Judicial Establishment, are those which tend to secure the performance of the judicial office with learning, ability, and integrity, and which tend to obtain for the suitors the decision of their causes with as little delay and expense as may be, regard being had to the careful and deliberate investigation of the truth. These principles are applicable to two branches of the judicial system, the civil and the criminal; and as regards the criminal, they are applicable likewise to two branches, for it consists of two parts, which under any government must both be formed, though they may be more or less kept separate. These two parts or branches are, the police and the adjudication; the former comprising the prevention of offences by vigilance or summary process of

1 Stat. 43 Geo. 3. c. 58. commonly called Lord Ellenborough's act. The offences most likely to be committed in Kerry or Tipperary, and the remote Western Islands, were made capital, and tried as such before the act could reach those distant quarters; and yet the offences, when committed, were supposed clergyable.

restraint, the tracing offenders, and the bringing them to trial; the latter comprising the trial of offences. The execution of the sentences belongs to the executive government, as does properly the police department itself, rather than to the judicial establishment. Hence a more accurate division would perhaps be to hold the police, and the execution or infliction, to be two appendages of the judicial department, the one previous to trial, the other subsequent to it.

The principles by which a good Judicial System may be most certainly framed appear to be these. They are fourteen in number.

1. As many judges should be appointed as the bar can furnish of well qualified persons, and as the demands of the suitors require for dispatching their business without delay in the civil courts, and trying the supposed offenders without longer imprisonment than is absolutely necessary.

2. The courts should be locally situated so as to bring justice home to every one's door, and neither put the suitor nor the supposed offender to the inconvenience and charge of a distant trial.

3. Each court should be so constructed as to throw upon the judges individual responsibility, and yet to consist of more than a single judge, in order to secure full consideration and prevent mistakes. Four is found in practice to be the best number, unless in a court of the last resort, where an odd number is preferable.

4. The division of judicial labour should be attended to, by committing certain great branches of judicature to different courts; but care should be taken to avoid too minute a subdivision. Carried to a certain length, this division of labour secures expertness; carried too far, it contracts the understanding.

5. The judicial office should be holden for life, unless in the case of bad behaviour.

6. Judges should be incapable of receiving any promotion, either by holding other offices, or by being raised from one judicial place to a higher.

7. Ample salaries should be given to the judges, regard being had to prices and to the habits of the upper classes in society; and no fees should be received by them, except small

ones in respect of business dispatched, and in the multiplication of which they themselves have no voice or influence.

8. No patronage whatever should be vested in any judge. 9. No judge should be suffered to hold any political office, or have any share whatever, or any connection whatever, direct or indirect, with the government of the state.

10. The judicial power should be kept wholly distinct from the legislative as well as the executive power; no judge should be suffered to sit in any legislative assembly, or hold any executive offices, or belong to any administrative council. 11. The expense of the judicial establishment should be defrayed by the state, and not by the suitors; that is to say, the suitors should not pay for the establishment by which their causes are tried, either by fees (excepting only the very trifling ones afore mentioned to secure dispatch), or by stamps, or other taxes on law proceedings. But this does not apply to the aid claimed from courts of justice in administering the estates or other interests of private individuals, and which should be paid for like other agencies.

12. A due watch should be kept on the ordinary courts of the country, by allowing a review of their decisions on appeal. The court of appeal should be sufficiently numerous to have lawyers in it of various qualifications; some should belong to the ordinary courts for the purpose of securing expertness; some should not belong to them, for the purpose of securing sufficient attendance without inconvenience to those inferior courts.

13. The judges should be named by the executive government alone, without any other interference; and by some one answerable to the legal profession, without the interference of party or political influence.

14.

All courts should sit and give their judgments, in public, the fullest liberty being allowed to the public of attending their proceedings, with only a discretion to exclude strangers in such few cases as, from regard to decency or to the peace of families, require it. In proportion as the proposed system in any Country shall be constructed upon these principles, it will prove useful, pure, and efficacious towards its great purpose, protection of rights and the punishment of crimes.

the

The other branch or appendage, the police department, is not subject to these principles. It is purely executive, and

should be in the hands of persons responsible to, and removable by the government. Its expense in great towns should be paid by the state; in county districts and smaller towns, partly at least by the inhabitants either contributing money or service to the preservation of the peace. But in every case the command of the police force, whether regular or composed of the inhabitants, should be vested in persons named by and responsible to the executive government. No judicial function whatever should be held by any police functionary, nor any police function by any judicial magistrate. These principles should govern a good police; to which we may add, that great caution and abstinence should be used in the employment of spies or informers, in order to avoid both the unnecessary breach of private confidence, and the risk of those worthless creatures seducing persons into offending for the purpose of gaining a profit by betraying them.

Such are the general principles of all jurisprudence as applicable to the two great branches, Promulgation of the Law, and Execution of it by the constitution of Judicatures. In what manner these judicatures ought to proceed with a view to attain the ends of justice forms the other great branch of the subject, and it divides itself into two parts: the law laying down the right, and defining the wrong, with the penalties annexed to the breach of the one and the commission of the other, and the method of procedure for enforcing and compensating, and for punishing the wrong. Each of these subdivisions is again divided into two, the one comprising civil, the other criminal, matters on a procedure.

It is not the purpose of this article to exhaust any of these subdivisions of the subject. But there are certain general principles applicable to them all and in abiding by which, any given system of Jurisprudence will approach to perfection, or will be imperfect in proportion as it departs from them. And first, respecting Civil Rights,

1. The law should be the same to all classes of the community in its eyes all men should be equal: it ought to give each individual the same rights and the same remedies in respect of the same actions, exertions, sufferings, possessions.

2. The law ought carefully to protect every one in the enjoyment of his labour and his property, enable him to deal